Taxing

It took me a whole day to do all of the sums required to complete the tax return that I could have done months ago. In theory a spreadsheet would work it all out for me... I bungled my way through the online questions and almost submitted a healthy profit until I found out how to put in the expenses. It was sobering to see my deficit in black and white. After clicking "submit" I felt pleased with my efforts for about 5 minutes until it dawned on me that I had gone beyond April up to September with my accounting, confusing the tax year end with my company's year end! I daresay I will eventually be contacted by a representative from the Tax Department; they will demand to know why such an idiot can possibly hope to run a small business and recommend that I find a full time job instead.

I actually started the week as a stand-in specialist science teacher. I taught 5 classes of 11 and 12 year olds a lesson about solids, liquids, and gases including messing about with a non-Newtonian liquid made from cornflour and water. I mentioned molecules, alchemy and mercury induced madness in passing and a few students told me that it was "The coolest ever science lesson!" I must admit that it is really nice to hear comments like that from time to time, especially when so many pupils think that "Now, stop and listen..." does not apply to them thus wasting valuable lesson time. It is not the done thing to throw chalk at children in the 21^st century – besides there isn't any chalk anyway ;)

I was in school for three days this week so I was suffering withdrawal symptoms from my workshop. I made a few more apple core units for one of the scrappy Christmas quilts and I am going to smuggle a very small sewing machine back into the house to see if I can get a few more done each evening. In the depths of winter I spend most evenings on the computer, not necessarily working on my book (although this week I managed to get a few more paragraphs written - in case Ellen is reading this to check up on my progress with that project!)

I made a start on the first of my 3 planned metallic wholecloth pieces based on Norse carvings. The first one is in shiny gold lame and the definition created by the quilting is fantastic. There are a couple of slightly iffy areas of tension on the back because the combination of lame and cheap IKEA cotton is not ideal. I may have to paint over the offending areas on the back if I decide to enter it into a competition. I am not sure yet whether to give the quilt a rustic looking edge like a slab of broken metal or whether to take the easy way out and keep it straight. The next two may be more challenging since I have not got silver and copper in the same fabric and I have had to settle for lurex instead. These fabrics are very difficult to mark and every wobbly pen line is there forever. I will do a bit of cosmetic stitching to finish off the gold panel then see if I manage to complete the set. Hopefully I will allow myself more sewing time in the coming week to work on those and get the next part of SMS2 done before the final class. I also need to schedule kit making time for my classes in Newcastle and continue with "that other previously mentioned project" which seems to be taking rather a long time!